Grab: Only 35,000 cars for 600,000 daily bookings

Ride-sharing company Grab blamed the low supply of vehicles and drivers for the difficulty in booking rides.

In a statement yesterday, Grab admitted that there are only around 35,000 vehicles operating to serve 600,000 bookings per day. “This overflow in demand and severe undersupply of cars has currently resulted in long waits or not getting allocated a vehicle at all,” the

company added.

Grab is appealing to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to allow displaced Uber drivers to operate under the transport network company (TNC) of their choice, given the overflow of demand after Grab’s acquisition of Uber.

Grab country head Brian Cu explained that before Grab’s acquisition of Uber, Grab, with 24,000 vehicles, served 60-65 percent of bookings, while Uber served around 50 percent with its 19,000 vehicles.

Of the 19,000 active Uber vehicles, only 11,000 moved to Grab.

Grab said a majority of the current gap between demand and supply is due to the 6,000 active Uber drivers who could no longer continue driving as they were not part of the LTFRB’s audited masterlist.

This has resulted in only 53 percent of passengers able to get a ride on their first booking attempt, but this goes down to as low as 37 percent on average during peak hours.

Cu said that the demand and supply situation in the transport network service in the Philippines is serious and needs the collaboration of regulators and TNCs.

“We need more cars to serve the riding public. We appeal to the LTFRB to allow the displaced 6,000 Uber drivers who are not part of the masterlist to continue driving with their chosen TNC in order to support the demand,” Cu said.